


Stay

by stars_over_sky



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-12
Updated: 2018-03-12
Packaged: 2019-03-30 15:27:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,102
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13954512
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stars_over_sky/pseuds/stars_over_sky
Summary: Sara has one secret left; it's easy to put on a brave face by light of day but a little harder at 3am. (Set between 3x12 and 3x13)





	Stay

It's harder to hide from her fears in the dark, late at night when everyone’s asleep--when Ava’s asleep in her bed, their clothes scattered across the floor. She can still hear him taunting her when she closes her eyes, can still feel the chill in her bones despite the warmth of Ava’s bare arm draped over her shoulders, and can't quite stop herself from shuddering at the thought of being possessed again.

“‘s wrong?” Ava asks sleepily, and she can feel her heart breaking a little at the concern in Ava’s voice, at the way Ava’s arm tightens around her protectively.

She shouldn't have done this, shouldn't have asked Ava out without telling her the truth--in the light of day it was easier to tell herself that it didn't matter, that she'd screw everything up and Ava would realise what a train wreck she was and bolt before they got this close, but she hadn't counted on Ava _liking_ her enough to overlook the disastrous ending to their first date, on Ava confronting her after she ran out, or staying instead of making an excuse to leave and never come back.

“I made a huge mistake,” she says. Ava freezes, the sudden tension making her realise she's barrelling full speed toward a misunderstanding. “God, not you--you could never be a mistake, Ava.”

The tension is almost gone but Ava doesn't speak, doesn't break the spell and give her an out from the path she's started on. 

“A few weeks ago I went on a mission to help a young Nora Darhk. It went badly and we were sent back to 1969 by Mallus... we… I needed to get back, I panicked. I let Mallus possess me so we could steal some of his power and get home again, and I thought that was the end of it but _apparently_ Mallus could come back at any time if I'm not strong enough and Constantine told Ray that they’ll have to kill me if he does and I agreed, of course I agreed, but I don't want to die again.”

She can feel angry tears coming and closes her eyes, shrugging free of Ava’s grasp and turning away, almost bumping her nose on the bulkhead. “I'm sorry, this is too much to drop on you. If you wanna go, I totally get it.”

“Hey, it's okay,” Ava’s voice is soft, without the judgement she'd anticipated, and she can't resist as warm fingertips catch her by the arm, pulling her back. “If it’s too much to drop on me it's definitely too much to bear alone.” 

The relief as Ava draws her close is overwhelming, drowning out her earlier despair and giving her enough composure to at least start pulling herself back together, resting her cheek on Ava’s shoulder. “Sorry, I’m not usually this much of a… normally I just repress this shit and get on with it.”

“Mmm, healthy coping mechanisms,” Ava says, yelping when she shifts forward to gently bite Ava’s neck. “I'm sympathising, not judging.”

She slides an arm around Ava’s waist, getting comfortable, regretting for the first time that she had kept the narrow bunk instead of asking Gideon for a real bed. At least her room had been tidy if spartan, and Ava had been too polite--or too busy kissing her--to comment on the lack of personalisation before Gideon had dimmed the lighting to something more mood appropriate. She'll have to make some changes, even if she has to bolt everything to the floor so that it doesn't go flying the next time their landing is less than perfect. 

She can't hear Mallus in the back of her head now, and for the first time in weeks she’s not dreading sleep--just dreading the assembly of whatever Swedish-inspired furniture Gideon will spit out in flat-pack format for her. 

“We’ll figure something out together,” Ava says, and she realises that while she's been calculating how to make her room more appealing to the first person she's brought home in forever, Ava’s been stuck on the whole demonic possession and death thing. “There must be a way to incapacitate you if you're possessed, jumping straight to murder is a terrible idea… I don't like it, and your team won't either.”

“They'll do what I tell them,” she says, then frowns.

Since her afternoon with Gideon, Zari’s been training with her totem almost every waking moment not already dedicated to ship repair, eating or being led astray by the others, Nate’s been spending long hours in the library but being notoriously cagey about what he's researching, and Amaya was splitting her time between helping them both. 

Gideon’s playing with a stripped down version of Zari’s simulator whenever they're in the temporal zone and she has processing power to spare, and Ray… Ray had succeeded in making a weapon that might kill her, had used it on Nora Darhk, but whether he could turn it on her... maybe Mick would, if there were no other options.

“They probably won't,” she admits. “You're… um… taking this pretty well.” Taking it well is a bit of an understatement really; Ava hadn't told her she was an idiot or berated her for her lapse in judgement, she'd skipped straight to being supportive.

“You blame yourself too much already for things outside your control, I'm not going to add to it,” Ava presses a kiss to her forehead, pulling the blankets up around them.

“I could get used to this,” she says, though it's an almost even split between compelling and terrifying. Her meaningful relationships to date can be counted on one hand with fingers to spare and they weren't the healthiest to begin with, but now Ava knows everything-- _everything_ \--and she's still there, she's not trying to pull away. “I mean, if you're gonna hang around. Because I...” she takes a deep breath, takes a leap of faith on this one, “I want you to stay.”

“I made my choice when I went back for you on that stupid beach, you're stuck with me now,” Ava’s tone is deliberately light and carefree but she can hear Ava’s heart beating faster. “But no more hitchhiking home with demons, okay? I'll get you a distress beacon from the office--if something goes wrong just activate it and I'll come for you.”

“Yeah you will,” she says automatically without even thinking, laughing when Ava just sighs at the innuendo. 

“Go to sleep, jerk,” Ava tells her, the warmth in her voice taking the sting from the insult. “I'll still be here in the morning.”


End file.
